Base turned down free fireworks

Published: Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 09:19 PM.

Base officials don’t deny they were offered free fireworks after announcing they were canceling this year’s Independence Day celebration.

However, that would have covered only a quarter of what the annual event costs to hose, according to Nat Fahy, the public affairs officer for Marine Corps Installations East.

“The base paid roughly $25,000 for fireworks last year out of a total cost of nearly $100,000 to host the celebration,” Fahy said.

Due to forced budget cuts from sequestration Camp Lejeune opted to cancel its annual Fourth of July fireworks. Pennsylvania-base Zambelli Fireworks offered to put on the fireworks display at no cost to the Marine Corps, but the Corps declined.

“Other associated expenses include sound and stage equipment, portable toilets, parking lot shuttle services, and food,” Fahy said. “The cost of the fireworks alone was not the reason (MCI-East Commanding General Brig. Gen. Thomas Gorry) made the decision to cancel the Fourth of July celebration.”

He factored in the additional costs required, such as overtime for security transportation, logistics, safety and emergency services required to host 20,000 people, said Fahy.

“During a period in which federal employees are scheduled to be furloughed due to sequestration, expending limited funds and paying personnel overtime to manage a non-mission-essential event did not seem to be a prudent use of finite government resources,” said Fahy.

Base officials don’t deny they were offered free fireworks after announcing they were canceling this year’s Independence Day celebration.

However, that would have covered only a quarter of what the annual event costs to hose, according to Nat Fahy, the public affairs officer for Marine Corps Installations East.

“The base paid roughly $25,000 for fireworks last year out of a total cost of nearly $100,000 to host the celebration,” Fahy said.

Due to forced budget cuts from sequestration Camp Lejeune opted to cancel its annual Fourth of July fireworks. Pennsylvania-base Zambelli Fireworks offered to put on the fireworks display at no cost to the Marine Corps, but the Corps declined.

“Other associated expenses include sound and stage equipment, portable toilets, parking lot shuttle services, and food,” Fahy said. “The cost of the fireworks alone was not the reason (MCI-East Commanding General Brig. Gen. Thomas Gorry) made the decision to cancel the Fourth of July celebration.”

He factored in the additional costs required, such as overtime for security transportation, logistics, safety and emergency services required to host 20,000 people, said Fahy.

“During a period in which federal employees are scheduled to be furloughed due to sequestration, expending limited funds and paying personnel overtime to manage a non-mission-essential event did not seem to be a prudent use of finite government resources,” said Fahy.

Given that base was not providing its usual display, Onslow County Parks and Recreation prepared — and spent — for a much larger crowd, said Rick Perry, the recreation division head for Onslow County Parks and Recreation.

“More was spent than prior years but hard figures have not been established yet,” Perry said. “Everything was beefed from fireworks to security. We had to prepare for the larger crowd.”

Prior to the fireworks show, Parks and Recreation estimated an additional 3,000 to 5,000 attendees, said Perry.

“It’s hard to estimate hard numbers of how many people we had,” Perry said. “The eyeball test said it’s safe to say we added 2,000 to 4,000 more people. ...And all of those people meant we need to ramp up the participation from emergency services and the Onslow County Sheriffs Office.”

In order to be prepared for such an influx of people, Parks and Recreation established about 10 parking lots and a shuttle service from Southwest High School.

“We changed some traffic patterns,” Perry said. “One of our main goals was safety to the pedestrians. Overall, that was one of the things that made the whole thing a success with no major mishaps.

“Everything was safe and people had fun – that what’s most important.”